100 Favorite Dishes, No. 38: The Peace 'Stachio at Hypnotic Donuts

To prepare for this fall's Best of Dallas® 2014 issue, we're counting down (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes. If there's a dish you think we need to try, leave it in the comments, or email me.

I love doughnuts; I am not a morning person. I wonder if these two statments hint at some sort of subconscious self-protection mechanism in which the very tiny part of my brain, devoted to preservation and matters of well-being, realizes the very large part of my brain, devoted to gluttony and excess, will not eat a doughnut if it's anything less than fresh. Self-protection brain knows it can save itself from an extra 500 hundred calories if can just talk the hedonist brain into staying in bed till 10 a.m., and in this one small battle he almost always prevails.

Sometimes, though, I find myself up early. And when I'm up early and hungry a doughnut seems like a pretty good idea. And while I'm not too snobby from a simple glazed number from a Korean-owned doughnut shop (again, only if it's fresh) my one and only favorite doughnut lies in the case at Hypnotic Donut. They really are the best in town.

They call it the Peace 'Stachio. Picture a respectably cooked vanilla cake doughnut, capped with a veneer of brown butter frosting. Big chunks of chopped pistachios are pressed into one half, giving the doughnut some texture and crunch.

I've seen the same doughnut at coffee shops in the evening and it doesn't have the same allure after it has sat for an afternoon. A doughnut fresh from the oil at Hypnotic and a cup of jet-black coffee, on the other hand, is the stuff of revelation. It's something I could almost talk myself into getting out of bed early for.